Among her next job options, public relations is probably not an option.
You are a cruise ship company executive. Your half-billion dollar cruise ship hit a a rock because the captain was fooling around, tipped over, and while it was sinking, the captain lied to the Coast Guard about conditions and fled in a lifeboat before the passengers were safe. More than 20 are missing, and eleven bodies have been found. What do you do?
If you are Costa Cruises Assistant director Monica Bova, you accuse the surviving passengers of “sensationalism” over the disaster.
“I have read, seen and heard so much nonsense from these survivors, who tended as usual to choose sensationalism rather than information,” she wrote in a post on an Italian website. “I realize that there may be conflicting opinions and I do not have the expertise to determine guilt and causes of the tragedy, but in a real emergency anything can happen.” Bova went on to call her colleagues the “true heroes”, adding that without them, none of the guests would have been able to evacuate.
Yes, that captain of the Costa Concordia was a true hero, all right. And I guess the crew could have done a worse job than the disorganized, panicky reaction passengers describe—they could have just started pushing people off the decks.
In tort law, there is a doctrine called res ipsa loquitur–Latin for “the thing speaks for itself.” When a cruise ship varies from its computer-set course for no reason, hits a rock, the captain flees and people die, several things don’t need further proof. The ship’s captain is at fault and accountable. The crew is at fault and accountable. The company that owns and staffs the ship is at fault and accountable.. The passengers are not at fault for anything, and if they are uncharitable in their remarks about reckless and incompetent crew that ruined the cruise and killed their fellow passengers, they have every right to be.
Any cruise ship company executive remotely connected to the tragedy should have only one thing to say at this point: “I’m terribly sorry. We take full responsibility.”
Of course, the Carnival Cruise senior executives above Ms. Bova have one other thing they need to say, right away, to her.
Can you guess what it is?
Thaaat’s right.
Ethics Alarms 
Good call. Not a hard one, but apt.
Jack, you got a link to that? This kind of thing can be misconstrued or misread (and I’ll be the first to admit that I can get sucked into this kinda thing too – remember the alleged turd tattoo? Turned out not to be true).
If this IS verifiable, then Ms. Bova just did something rather remarkable: she made Tony Hayward look good.
Yes…the link is now in the post and here. Sorry.
In a statement that may possibly be issued by Costa Cruises 48 hours from now, the company will congratulate Ms Bova on her new role as a street corner burger vendor in Scranton PA:
‘Monica’s unrivalled experience of mass audience catering and customer relations will be greatly missed. But our loss is very much Scranton’s gain.’
Ms Bova’s sudden career change was, said the company, entirely unconnected with video footage shown on worldwide TV today (Friday) taken by one of the many irresponsible and over-emotional passengers which Costa Cruises had the misfortune of carrying on its magnificently well-run Costa Concordia cruise liner.
The video shows passengers wearing life jackets grouped at an assembly point after the ship had grounded. They are being told by a ‘heroic’ crew member to return to their cabins.
Shortly afterwards, the ship rolled onto its side.
Six months from now, Carnival Inc, the parent company of Costa Cruises, will very possibly issue the following statement:
‘With immediate effect, Costa Cruises is to be re-named Ocean Voyages. The change of name is as a result of an extensive consultation with our much-valued if irresponsible customers, the majority of whom told us that Costa Cruises sounds too much like a flaoting, or even, sinking coffee shop, rather than a palace of the sea.’
Carnival Inc denied that the decision to dump the Costa Cruises name was in any way connected with the dumping of the Costa Concordia on a rock off the Tuscany coast in January 2012.
Said Scranton PA hotdog vendor Ms Monica Bova: ‘Sounds good to me.’
Actually made me laugh, Scott, and that’s not easy this week. The Comment of the Day!
Had she kept it at that , she would have have been an ethics dunce.
You’re right! She’s a Double-Dunce!